Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2000 17:34:33 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Leslie Roslund Subject: Re: Sandhill Crane MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Jim, and others: The Hooper's Island Sandhill Crane is very large, and looks and acts so much like the one that lingered on Tarbutton Mill Road over here (near Trappe) from Apr 99 to mid-Jan 00 that it is quite tempting to think it might be the same bird. Jim Stasz called that one as a 'tabida', also known as the Greater Sandhill Crane. A rather nicely done book about Sandhill Cranes that I picked up in Nebraska a couple of years ago describes four major flocks of Greater Sandhill Cranes, one of them being the Great Lakes Flock. The Great Lakes Flock winters in central Florida and nests in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and parts of southern Canada. It is easy to picture that this bird (or these birds) wandered eastward from the normal migration pattern, and then found an easy life amongst some Canada Geese that were being fed all year by host property owners. The Hooper's Island bird's plumage shows lots of the rusty coloring, so this bird has spent its summer somewhere where the soil it probed was laden with ferrous material. The Hooper's Island bird is indeed very tame, and since its loitering location is in a relatively small yard, the visiting birders are often immediately impressed with how tame the bird is. The Tarbutton Mill Road bird was usually viewed from greater distance by the birder community, such as from 300 yards or more, so tameness was usually not tested by us. But the Tarbutton Mill property owner told me of being able to get very close to his bird - attaining approach distances quite similar to what we have found on Hooper's Island. No bands have been present on either of these birds. I will be happy to defer to true experts for further comments about how and why these birds have shown up here at this time. The book I mentioned is:"The Cry of the Sandhill Crane", by Steve Grooms, published by NorthWood Press, Inc. , Box 1360, Minocqua, WI, 54548. ISBN 1-55971-142-6. Les Roslund Easton, MD ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ========================================================================== ==========================================================================